"Oligarchy." People in my business use that term to describe Russia’s unofficial form of government. It means government by the few, the rich, the industrialist pals of Vladimir Putin.

Yuri Lunchbucketov on the tractor factory assembly line has the vote, but he has little say over anything to do with policy decisions.

But the U.S.? Ah, we’re a democratic republic! We were taught in grade school that whether you’re an average bloke or Charlie Koch, your vote counts equally.

I never believed that. It would be like saying the Great Salt Lake and the Pacific Ocean are equal because both are made up of drops of salt water.

And now I know I was right: A just-released study by professors Martin Gilens at Princeton and Benjamin I. Page at Northwestern concludes that the U.S. is an oligarchy, too.

“In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status-quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it,” the professors conclude.

Our oligarchy, like Russia’s, is based on the Golden Rule. If you’ve got the gold, you rule. In Illinois we call it “pay to play,” but it applies to all of the U.S.

We allow practically unlimited contributions by special interests of all kinds to candidates for the U.S. House and Senate. Those contributions buy access. The more you give, the more access you get.

And access translates to influence. As we say in Illinois, “ya dance with the one that brung ya.”

Let’s take a look at who’s buying access in the 17th Congressional District.

Freshman Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from East Moline and a protege of powerful Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield Democrat, was put on two high-profile committees: Agriculture, and Transportation and Infrastructure.

Bustos faces former U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, a Republican from Colona, in the November election. It’s a rematch of their 2012 contest, which Bustos won handily in the district that was tailored for her to win by Illinois Democrats who drew new district maps after the 2010 census.

According to the Federal Election Commission, Bustos is winning the money race, hands down. Many of her contributors are organizations and corporations that deal with her two committees. She also benefits from her former career as vice president of a health care association.

Plus, Bustos’ campaign is helped by her being an incumbent in a district Democrats need to keep if they want to have any chance of regaining the majority in the House.

As of March 31, the FEC says, Bustos had received $1,406,502 in contributions. Of that, a little over half was from political action committees. Click here to read the fascinating, 22-page list of PACs and other groups giving money to this freshman’s campaign. You’ll find PACs representing the airline pilots union and American Airlines; sugar companies and bus companies; engineering companies and bankers; retired maritime officers and Rep. Joe Kennedy’s 4MA PAC.

You’ll find PACs for short-line railroads and anesthesiologists; architects and Archer Daniels Midland; the Association of American Railroads and the union for railroad signalmen; Comcast and the Committee for a Livable Future; General Electric and General Dynamics; liquor wholesalers and Walgreens. And lots of contributions from “friends of” committees for other Democrats and liberal funding groups like EMILY’s List.

Schilling’s contributions are not so robust. As of March 31, the FEC says, the Quad Cities businessman had raised $424,963.

Of that, $307,678 came from individuals. Just 23.6 percent came from the kinds of political action committees that have befriended Bustos.

Schilling has two pages of PAC contributions. They include Caterpillar employees and ERIC, or Every Republican is Crucial, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s committee; builders and contractors and ABATE, the motorcycle riders group; the Koch Brothers’ committee and COLE PAC, from U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.

Keep checking websites to see who’s buying stakes in candidates. The FEC site has lots of details and easy-to-read graphs and charts on congressional and U.S. Senate campaigns. Other sites I like are Open Secrets and Pro Publica.

Find out who’s paying to play. It’s probably not you.

Chuck Sweeny: 815-987-1366; csweeny@rrstar.com; @chucksweeny

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